By Yakubu LAAH InvestAdvocate

Lagos (INVESTADVOCATE)-Skye Bank Plc Tuesday reported its profit after tax (PAT) went up 27 percent for the financial year ended December 31, 2013.

In its 2013 audited year end released to the Nigerian stock exchange (NSE), PAT went up from N12.644 billion in 2012 to N16.023 billion in the review period of 2013.

However, profit before tax (PBT) grew slightly by 3.8% as the Nigerian lender posted N17.136 billion in 2013 audited year end compared to N16.510 billion recorded in 2012.

Gross earnings dropped to 0.3% as Skye Bank declared N127.340 billion in 2013 compared to N127.730 billion in the previous year.

In his reaction, Kehinde Durosinmi-Etti, group managing director/chief executive officer (GMD/CEO) of the bank said in a year beset with various regulatory headwinds on the backdrop of monetary policy tightening and it attendant impact on liquidity, cost, fees and overall earnings, the bank’s results showed positive growth on all performance indices.

“Having recorded gross earnings of N127.340 billion, we grew our interest income by four percent year-on-year, from N101 billion to N105.3 billion, while our interest expense reduced by 23 per cent to close at N43.6 billion from N56.5 billion. This reflected our focus at replacing relatively expensive term deposits with low-cost funding and the continuous use of our branch network to mobilise less costly deposits.

“With this, we increased our net operating income year-on-year from N56.7 billion to N68.5 billion, representing a 21 percent growth. Our operating expense increased by 28 percent, from N40.2 billion to N51.4 billion as a result of increased statutory payments and other operating costs,” Durosinmi-Etti said.

Meanwhile, the bank has proposed to pay its shareholders a 30 kobo dividend for its 2013 audited year end.